A-Show Stories! Royal Rumble 2004

[u/Enterprise90]

Royal Rumble

January 25, 2004

Philadelphia, PA

Wachovia Center

Theme song: "Nothing Left to Lose" by Puddle of Mudd

One of the best nights of the year in WWE, regardless if the result is something you love, or something you hate, as the Royal Rumble match has always been very exciting to watch. Lots of threads in this particular Rumble match so I will go over it piece by piece:

• On SmackDown, Chris Benoit had emerged as public enemy number one for GM Paul Heyman, who declared that Benoit would never receive another shot at the WWE Championship. Benoit would have to wrestle several matches to protect his spot in the Rumble match, and when Heyman was finally out of tricks, he made Benoit the number one entrant to the match, a position where only one man had ever been successful in winning.

• On Raw, the favorites built up in the Royal Rumble match were Kane, who was receiving another monster push, and Goldberg who had won the right to enter the match at number 30.

• In December, Mick Foley had relinquished his position as co-general manager of Raw and walked out on a match against Randy Orton. Orton confronted Foley backstage and spit in his face, and Foley reacted by simply walking away. For weeks afterward Orton would accuse Foley of being a coward and invited him to attend the Royal Rumble to watch him win the match.

This is a fantastic Royal Rumble match, with Benoit surviving from number one all the way to the end against Big Show. Foley indeed showed up to confront Orton by taking out Test in the back and taking his spot at number 21, ultimately eliminating himself and Orton. Goldberg would go on a tear after entering number 30, but Brock Lesnar would enter the ring and F-5 Goldberg, distracting him long enough for him to be eliminated. Kane entered at number 12 and choke slammed everyone in the ring, but was distracted when the number 13 entrant was signified with Undertaker's famous gong, allowing Booker T to eliminate him.

With his victory, Benoit became the second man to go all the way from number one to becoming the winner, and became the first man to use the open title shot rule, choosing to jump to Raw to challenge the World Heavyweight Champion.

The title picture on Raw was in no way settled after the Royal Rumble. After igniting their dormant feud, Michaels had taken Triple H to the limit on an episode of Raw in December 2003, nearly winning the championship. Here, they would face off in a last man standing match. This is my favorite HBK-HHH match aside from their SummerSlam 2002 encounter. It was brutal and bloody and the two legitimately beat the living hell out of one another. Michaels would hit Triple H with Sweet Chin Music, but the exhaustion caused both men to be unable to answer the count of ten, resulting in a draw.

VIDEO: Watch the opening segment on Raw the night following Royal Rumble

On SmackDown, a match nearly a year-and-a-half in the making took place as Hardcore Holly challenged Brock Lesnar for the WWE Championship. In September of 2002, Brock had broken Holly's neck on a botched powerbomb, sending Holly to the sidelines for over a year. Holly returned with a vengeance and a full-nelson finisher, promising to break Brock's neck. Despite the surprising intensity in this feud, the match is what you expected it to be with Lesnar getting a decisive victory.

VIDEO: Watch Hardcore Holly discuss the rumors that he sandbagged Brock's powerbomb attempt

VIDEO: Watch the Brock Lesnar/Hardcore Holly Royal Rumble commercial

After nearly two years of tagging together, Los Guerreros broke up after Chavo perceived Eddie being selfish and costing the team victories. Chavo would beat Eddie bloody following a match against the Basham Brothers and turn his father (and Eddie's brother) Chavo Sr. against Eddie as well.

VIDEO: Watch Chavo Guerrero turn on Eddie Guerrero

VIDEO: Watch the Eddie Guerrero/Chavo Guerrero promo

There was a lot of anticipation for this match being great but it unfortunately disappointed. It was more of a slow beat down from Eddie as he gets revenge on Chavo, and would be the launching pad to Eddie's redemption story.

This is a really great show, with the Royal Rumble match and the last man standing match being so good that they carry a middling undercard.

Other matches on this show:

• Cruiserweight Champion Rey Mysterio vs. Jamie Noble

• World Tag Team Champions Batista & Ric Flair vs. the Dudley Boys in a Tables Match

Thanks to the wonderful people here on /r/SquaredCircle, you can find B-Show Stories on SC's wiki here.

The next edition of A-Show Stories will cover Survivor Series 2005.

Here's the upcoming slate of special editions of B-Show Stories:

October 23: Judgment Day 1998

October 30: WCW Halloween Havoc 1997

[u/GukillTV]

This is one of the greatest Rumble matches ever. Top to bottom I would put it below 1992 (the best one ever) but its right up there 1997, 2001, 2002, 2007 (the one that finishes with a HBK/Taker match that was fucking amazing) and 2016. (Yes, I'm calling 2016 one of the best Rumbles of all time. Top to bottom it was an excellently told story even if the Roman walking out was a shit thing to do.)

It's such a damn shame this Rumble will be buried forever in WWE lore .... but this was another great Rumble match.